Artist Creates 3D Printed Portraits Of Random People Based On DNA Samples Found On Cigarette Buds Found On Streets

Technology and art combined

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• February 11, 2022

Technology is a wonderful thing. It allows us to do things we couldn't even dream of a few decades ago. One of them is reconstructing a person's appearance for single hair or saliva sample.

What's even more impressive - we can even find out about that person's health. And all that thorough a wonderful world of DNA.

You would say that it is impossible to combine art and cutting-edge technology, but some people manage to do it. When Heather Dewey-Hagborg found a single hair stuck within a photo frame a few years back, it inspired her to create unique works of art - 3D representations of unknown people's faces solely based on their DNA samples.

She was inspired to take on a mission to learn as much as she could about the people who have left these small traces of themselves out in the world by forensics TV series like Bones.

Stranger Visions is a set of 3D portraits created from DNA extracted from chewing gum, cigarette butts, and hairs found on the streets and subways. Dewey-Hagborg takes them to a lab, separates the gene sequences herself, and then sends pieces to a different lab for DNA sequencing.

This analysis aids her in determining a variety of characteristics, including sex, ethnic background, eye color, hair color, height, freckle likelihood, and obesity proclivity. She created special software to create a 3D model based on these genes, which she then prints on a 3D printer to create a life-size portrait.

Installation at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

Sept 6, 2014

Installation at Laznia Museum of Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Poland

Dewey-Hagborg exhibits the 3D portraits alongside a box containing information gained from DNA testing, the original chewed gum or cigarette butt, and a photograph of the location where she discovered it.

Sample box for NYC sample 4

New York: Sample 4

1/6/13 12:20pm

Myrtle ave. and Himrod St. Brooklyn, NY

MtDNA Haplogroup: T2b (European)

SRY Gene: absent

Gender: Female

rs12913832: AA

Likely Eye Color: Brown

rs4648379: CT

Slightly smaller nose size

rs6548238: TT

Slightly lower odds for obesity

New York: Sample 2

Myrtle ave. and Himrod St. Brooklyn, NY

MtDNA Haplogroup: T2b (European)

SRY Gene: absent

Gender: Female

rs12913832: AA

Likely Eye Color: Brown

rs4648379: CT

Slightly smaller nose size

rs6548238: TT

Slightly lower odds for obesity

New York: Sample 3

MtDNA Haplogroup: L2a1 (African)

SRY Gene: present

Gender: Male

rs12913832: AA

Eye Color: Brown

rs4648379: CC

Typical nose size

rs6548238: CC

Typical odds for obesity

New York: Sample 6

MtDNA Haplogroup: D1 (Native American, South American)

SRY Gene: present

Gender: Male

rs12913832: AA

Eye Color: Brown

rs4648379: CC

Typical nose size

rs6548238: CC

Typical odds for obesity

New York: Sample 7

MtDNA Haplogroup: L1b (Central or West African)

SRY Gene: present

Gender: Male

rs12913832: AA

Eye Color: Brown

rs4648379: CC

Typical nose size

rs6548238: CC

Typical odds for obesity

East Hampton: Sample 7

MtDNA Haplogroup: M48 (North East Indian)

SRY Gene: absent

Gender: Female

rs12913832: AA

Eye Color: Brown

rs4648379: CC

Typical nose size

rs6548238: CC

Typical odds for obesity

Watch Heather Dewey Hagborg talk about her artistic process:

Technology is impressive, right? Who knows what the scientists will be able to do in a couple of decades.

Maybe they will be able to grow a complete human from a single sample. Scary, right?

It's not hard to imagine a future where people won't throw cigarette buds, coffee plastic cups, or anything they've touched into the public trash bins. Instead, they'll carry them around until they reach a safe spot where they can burn them because if they don't, someone might take their DNA sample and create their clone.

Damjan